p e n g u i n d e v i l

Feeling that good old time AIP/Hammer feeling, I watched The Haunted Palace. Another one of that great MGM Midnite Movies series and a rather confused Lovecraft adaptation… Confused in the normal sense, where one take the bones of a Lovecraft story, cobbles on some other story bits and then throws in some completely un-Lovecraft stuff. This one though is made all the more so by titling it after a Poe poem, having the Poe piece read at the beginning and the end of the movie and placing it more in the time of Poe. That aside, it is a rather good Corman/Price film. Taking on the story of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Price plays Ward, a man who has inherited the house of a long dead ancestor up in the old seaside town of Arkham. He arrives in town in good spirits with his wife and the intention of moving in but he gets a rather unpleasant greeting. The townsfolk feel that this ancestor, Joseph Curwin, was a warlock who was up to some nefarious activities with the young ladies of the town and who then cursed the population… when they tied him to a tree and burned him to death. Though that was 110 years ago, people haven’t forgotten, maybe because they are all the same actors and their ancestors? But also maybe because a good portion of the population are strangely disfigured, including one mysterious beast looked in an attic. The folks are not pleased to see the house occupied again, especially not by an ancestor of that dreaded warlock… And one who bears such a striking resemblance to him. But they do meet a fairly friendly fellow and he helps them to find their goal. When they finally make inside the house, they are greeted by the friendly caretaker, Simon (played by Lon Chaney) which is rather strange since the outer door was locked from the outside and covered in webs…

Of course, the naive villagers may just know more than one might give them credit for, as Ward starts acting quite strange his first night in the house, almost like he has a split personality. Yes, of course, Price has become possessed by Curwin, and Simon is in fact one of Curwin’s co-warlocks, and they are eager to continue in their long delayed work to follow through the Necronomicon to mate human women with the Elder Gods (actually with one of the worst creature effects that I’ve ever seen)… But not before Curwin gets his vengeance against the people whose ancestors wronged him so long ago.

As with most of these, It is a great dramatic and atmospheric piece with a great period look, nice sets, lots of fog and dramatic painted backgrounds and a great score. Vincent Price does his usual fantastic job and it is a good story. One of the better of these great collaborations!

And in a much lesser moment, I also watched Body of Evidence. I’ve seen it enough times and it is a mediocre enough movie that it seems that it barely warrants mentioning, but when it came out, 15 years ago, it seemed notable for a couple of reasons: Madonna prancing about nude all over the place and all of the scenes shot in Portland. Of course, the city gets jumbled up as always seems to happen with urban geography. In this silly movie, Madonna plays a lady who seeks out older wealthy men with weak hearts so that she can sleep them to the big sleep, by using her body (the evidence, get it?) to excite them past the point that their old hearts can handle. Willem Defoe is her attorney who isn’t quite sure about her, but she manages to bring him over to her side. I’m not too fond of either of them as actors and the movie is really just not good. Plus it also stars a number of other actors that I am unsure of (Joe Mantegna and Jurgen Prochnow?)… But it does have, in fairly small roles, both Frank Langella & Julianne Moore, neither of whom I can quibble with. I wouldn’t recommend it, though I used to like to watch it as a double feature with Boxing Helena, though that is much more bearable movie.